Weapon found in younger Inman's cell

One of the men serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of Summer D. Inman was found with a makeshift weapon in his prison cell last month.

Mary Beth Lane, The Columbus Dispatch

One of the men serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of Summer D. Inman was found with a makeshift weapon in his prison cell last month.

William A. “Will” Inman II, 28, who is imprisoned at Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, was put in a segregation unit as discipline after a guard making a routine inspection discovered the “shank” inside a windowsill in his cell on Jan. 11, prison spokeswoman Melody Haskins said yesterday.

Why Inman had the weapon is not known, she said.

The report filed does not reflect how the shank was made. The word shank is commonly used as prison slang to describe any homemade weapon behind bars, Haskins said.

Inman was sentenced last year after a Hocking County jury convicted him of aggravated murder and other crimes in the kidnapping, strangulation and corpse abuse of his estranged wife on March 22, 2011.

Inman’s father, William A. “Bill” Inman, 48, was sentenced to life in prison without parole last week after he was found guilty of the same crimes related to his daughter-in-law’s death.

Will Inman sent a letter to his father during the elder Inman’s trial in which referred to a shank, Hocking County Prosecutor Laina Fetherolf wrote in an email yesterday.

The elder Inman is at a reception center before being sent on to what will become his permanent prison.

Sandra K. Inman, 47, is serving 15 years to life in Dayton Correctional Institution after she pleaded guilty last year to murder and other crimes.

Will and Summer Inman, who was 25, were locked in a nasty divorce and child-custody fight when she was abducted and murdered.